Montana Morning (30 page)

“Yes sirree, a lot
more grownup than me.”  Will winked at Scotty and smiled to himself. 
They made a list of supplies and a list of work to be done and headed back
home.  Scotty chattered all the way.  He was excited about fixing up
the cabin and he was truly happy about Jack and Addy . . . now.  As they
cleared the ridge behind the house, they spotted the truck pulling up the
lane.  By the time they reached the barn, Jack and Addy were walking
towards them hand in hand.

“Where you two
been?”  Jack asked, as he helped Scotty with the saddle.

“We checked out
the line shack.  Me and Grandpa Will . . .”

“Grandpa Will and
I,” Addy corrected with a smile and messed up his hair.

“Grandpa Will and
I are going to fix it up and fix the corrals and . . .”

“Slow down, boy,
we don’t even know if we’re going to need it yet.  Did you happen to make
a list of supplies, just in case?”

“Sure did and we
have all kinds of ideas how to do it without costing a bunch. Grandpa Will said
that was important.”  Jack grinned over at Addy and Will.  Whatever
had been bugging the boy, he must be over it.  He certainly had turned
into a jabber jaw all at once.

“How did your trip
to town go?” Will hated to ask but wanted to know.

“Good.” Jack took
Addy’s hand once more as they walked to the house.  “Things are going to
work out okay, one way or the other, Pops.”  Andy greeted them at the back
door as Scotty and Will helped to unload the truck.

“Get those baler
parts?”  Andy asked, as he held the screen door open.  “The hay is
going to be ready to cut about Monday, if the weather holds out.”

“Got them all.”
Jack answered, shaking his head in disgust.  “You’d think those things
were made of gold, judgin’ by what they cost.”

“Man, oh
man.  Does it smell good in here.”  Will said, as he inhaled the
sweet smell of the kitchen, and put the sacks of groceries on the table.

“I whipped up a
chocolate cake while you and Scotty were out playing around,” Andy ribbed
them.  “Hope it tastes better than it looks, it’s sure not pretty like the
ones Addy makes.”

“I’m sure it will
be wonderful,” Addy assured Andy, as she surveyed the chaos in her
kitchen.  Why don’t you fellows go outside to the picnic table to
visit?  I’ll start some coffee and put things away, and then we’ll have
some cake.”

“I do believe
we’ve been ordered out of the lady’s kitchen,” Will poked fun at her as they
went out the back door.

“Yes, you have,”
she told him, winking at Jack.  “Scotty, the sack on the counter has some
new socks and jeans in it for you.  Would you take them upstairs and put
them away, please?”   

Scotty grabbed the
sack and ran for the stairs.  “Don’t cut the cake until I get back!” he
yelled, taking the stairs two at a time.

***

The sun was going
down and the breeze was cool, as the men gathered around the table under the
trees.  “How did you do with all those bills?” Will half-whispered. 
He knew Jack wouldn’t want to talk about this in front of Scotty.

“Addy was right,
Pops.  We went in, told them we wanted to pay what we owed them, but we
just couldn’t figure out how to do it.  They sat down with us and we
worked it out.  It’s still a heap of money, but I think we may be able to
pull it off.”

“And if we can’t?”
Andy asked straight forward.

“Then we stick
together, just like God intended families to do, and we start over.”  The
screen door slammed behind them as Addy and Scotty brought out the cake and
coffee.

 “I can’t
wait to try Andy’s cake, it’s been a long time since . . .” Will stopped in
mid-sentence, his eyes riveted on the ring on Addy’s hand.  The tears
welled up in the corners of his eyes as he choked down the lump in his
throat.  “I remember the day I gave Emily that ring.  She had the
same glow, the same sparkle in her eyes as Addy has now.  I’m so pleased,
Son, you finally found your Emily.”

  Scotty
tapped Jack on the shoulder and whispered, “Her name is Addy.”

Jack smiled at
Pops and patted Scotty on the leg under the table.  “I’ll explain later,”
he whispered back.

***

Saturday, while
the men repaired the baler and prepared for the second cutting of hay, Addy and
Scotty returned to the line shack, with hammers, nails, and cleaning supplies.
Scotty took great pride in leading the way.

“You are getting
to be quite a woodsman, young man.”

“Grandpa and Andy
have been showing me how to read the land.” Scotty beamed from ear to ear as
they entered the meadows. “Isn’t this about the neatest place on the planet?”

“Must be in the
top ten,” Addy agreed.  She and Scotty tackled the cabin.  The men
would mend the corrals, if and when they were needed.  Four long hours later,
they stood back to admire their work. 

“Not too bad,”
Addy said, as she shut the door they had re-hung.

“It looks great.”

“There are still a
lot of repairs needed, but now Mr. Connelly might see it could be livable.”

“Are they really
going to use teams of horses to log up here?  I thought they only did that
in the movies.”

“If they log at
all.   We’ll know tomorrow night.”  As they rode back home Addy
thought about how restless Scotty had become the last time they were
haying.  The men put in such long, hard hours and they couldn’t find much
time for him.  “How would you feel about helping me paint the fence around
the house?”

“I’ve never
painted anything.” Scotty laughed.  “I don’t even know how.”

“I’m not very good
at it either, but I found some buckets of white paint in the basement a while
back and I don’t think we could hurt the fence much. We’ll start Monday, after
the men begin cutting the hay.”

Scotty shook his
head and giggled.  “We’d better start in the back until we figure out what
we’re doing.”

“Now there’s a man
with a plan, if I ever heard one.” 

They were almost
finished unsaddling the horses, when Scotty saw the pickup coming up the lane.

“It looks like we
have company coming,” Addy said, as she handed him her reins.  “Would you
mind putting my horse away and brushing her down?”

“No, I like
working with the horses,” he grinned.  “Do you want me to give her some
oats?”

“Of course,
silly.” As she walked to the house, Jeff, Seth, and John Tompkins were getting
out of the truck.  “Hi, fellows.  What brings you up this way on such
a sunny day?”

“Afternoon, Addy,
is Jack here?” Jeff asked, as he looked around.

“Scotty and I just
got back, but I think he’s down at the tractor shed working on a baler.”

“We need to talk
to him right away,” Seth said, as he walked away towards the shed.

“Sounds like I’d
better put on the coffee pot, or would you rather have something cold like iced
tea?”  Addy asked, as she and the two young men entered the kitchen.

“Iced tea sounds
real good,” Jeff answered, hanging his hat on the peg by the back
door.   “One of the best things about these old log houses, they’re
warm in the winter and cool in the summer.”

Jack came in with
Seth and after removing most of the grease from his hands and face, joined the
others at the table. “I take it we have a problem, seeing you fellows must be
trying to cut hay too.” Jack gave them a questioning look.

“Yeah, we have a
problem,” John sounded about half angry. “But first things first, I hear
congratulations are in order.”  They all grinned at Addy.  “You’re
one lucky man, Jackson Kilbourne.”

“And one brave
woman to put up with him,” Jeff put in.

“Say now, why are
you picking on me?  Aren’t men supposed to stick together?”  Jack
smiled as he growled.  “Now then, who’s in trouble?  I looked at that
list the other day, and no one appeared to be in immediate danger of
foreclosure.”

“It turns out
someone didn’t exactly level with us.  Word has it he’s in big
trouble!”  Seth looked down at his hands folded on the table.

“Damnation. 
How are we going to make this work if we aren’t honest with each other?” 
Jack rubbed his brow.  “I wish whoever it is would have leveled with us to
begin with, but I guess I can understand.  It’s always easier to help than
to ask for help.” He studied the fellows around the table.  “Who is it and
how bad?”  There were over twenty ranchers on the list, and it could be
any of them.

Jeff looked at
Seth and John, then cleared his throat.  “We don’t know, Jack, how bad is
it?”

Jack glanced at
Addy.  “I don’t understand.”

“Yes, you do.”
John Tompkins cut in.  “You told us no room for pride, we all sink or swim
together, and then you didn’t tell us about your debts.” He looked at the other
two men.  “We were naive enough to believe it was because you had enough money
cabbaged away to cover yourself, not because you were too darn proud to admit
you were in trouble too.”

“Now that’s not
exactly true.  We have enough to meet our ranch obligations,” Jack told
the young men at his table.

“Any time a
rancher is in danger of losing his place THAT is a ranch obligation, as far as
I’m concerned.” Seth answered firmly. “Why didn’t you tell us about all those
medical bills?  We clearly were not smart enough to figure it out for
ourselves.”

“Just how did you
find out anyway?”  Addy wondered out loud.

“Shelley was in
the bank and overheard Jack talking to the loan officer yesterday.”

“I think we have
it all under control now,” Jack assured them and smiled up at Addy who was
standing beside his chair.

“If I understand
this right, you paid off all of Mary and Jeff’s debts, and then when you took
custody of Scotty, you also took custody of all his medical bills.  Is
that the way it worked?”  John asked.

“Pretty much
so.  My attorney warned me, but he’s my grandson. What was I supposed to
do, turn him out in the street?”

“And if you don’t
pay up in time, the creditors will foreclose on your place.”

“Actually, the
doctors and hospital have done all they could to help us by cutting everything
as much as they can, and I’m hoping to sell some timber.”

“But the bottom
line is you might lose this place!” Seth cut in.

“Bottom line,
worst-case scenario, you’re right, but we aren’t going to let that happen,”
Jack said firmly.

“Well, at least
you’ve got that right.” Jeff stated, as he took the list from his pocket. 
“We had an emergency meeting last night at the grange and here’s what we’re
going to do.”  Jack reached out and looked at the papers.
“Benefit
Auction”

“I appreciate what
you’re trying to do, but I don’t want . . .”

“Listen Jack,”
Seth cut in.  “I know for years you and Will have contributed to every
worthy cause in the valley, and you felt pretty darn good about it, didn’t
you?”

“Sure, but ”

“But nothing,”
Jeff cut in.  “Look, I know it’s more blessed to give than to receive, but
have you ever looked at it from the other end?  If you don’t allow your
friends, people who love and care about you, to help - then you rob them of a
blessing.”

“You fellows came
here with this pretty much figured out, didn’t you?” Jack asked, as he got up
from the table and walked to the window.  “I understand what you’re trying
to do, like I say, but I just can’t let you do this.”

“You better get
used to it, because it’s happening in two weeks at the Grange Hall.” John told
him. 

Jeff could see how
uncomfortable his friend was with all this.  “Look Jack, all of us have
things hanging around we can get along without, and folks love auctions. 
We may not have cash, but we can help.  We really want to do this!”

Addy went to stand
at the window with Jack.

“Addy, what are we
going to do?”

 “We are
going to do whatever you know in your heart to be right,” she whispered and
took his hand.  Jack stood holding her hand, looking out at the land and
asking God for the courage to humble himself enough to accept help from his
friends.  The men at the table behind him waited in silence.

“Rob you of a
blessing, huh?” Jack turned, lopsided grin in place.  “That’s quite a
line; I’ll have to remember that one.”

“It’s also true,”
Seth assured him.  “You’ll be okay with this then?”

“Only if you’ll
let us contribute stuff  too.”

“Great!” Jeff
breathed a sigh of relief.  The other ranchers had voted to have the
auction even if Jack objected, but they sure hadn’t wanted to do it that
way.  “We have the auctioneer lined up, volunteered, and everyone will
have their lists of donations to us by Wednesday, so we can have the flyers out
a week in advance.”

“It seems like you
have this thing pretty well organized.  Can I do anything to help?” Addy
asked.

“Grange ladies are
doing the lunch; I imagine they could always use a helping hand.” John told her
as they prepared to go.  “And Jack, thanks, thanks for letting us do
this.  I’d be mighty proud to be counted among your friends, yours and
your lady’s.”

“You have been for
some time now, John . . . all of you fellows.” He walked them out to their
truck and went back to the tractor shed.  Addy watched him from the
window.  He was going to have a real struggle accepting this auction; she
watched his fists clenching and unclenching at his side.  His pride was
hurting and she didn’t know what to say or do to make it any better.

***

It was getting
close to dark when the men returned to the house for supper, but the machinery
was now ready for haying.  “Do we have time to get cleaned up before we
eat?” Will asked, as he showed her his greasy hands.

“None of you eat
in my kitchen until you do!” she ordered.  Half an hour later they were
back, showered and changed.